After short break, in October I treated myself with three wonderful, new additions to my library, once again interconnecting literature with fine art.

The very first October addition to my library was The Penguin Book of Irish Short Stories. The book has been on my 'To Read' list for some time. Ireland's been always attracting me mainly by its culture: Irish dance and songs are my favourite folk genre. Ireland is a beautiful country, which so far I know only from pictures and narrations, and which I'd like to visit once. I believe that these short stories will appeal to me as well. I'm already looking forward to read them.

Lost in Translation is an illustrated compendium comprising more than 50 untranslatable words. The author of the book Ella Frances Sanders states on her website that she's become a writer out of necessity and an illustrator by accident. You can find more about her and her work on her official website: ellafrancessanders.com

Foreign languages and their nuances belong to my greatest passions and thanks to my friends I have quite close relation with translations too. Myself, I tried several times to translate lyrics and poems from French to Slovak or from Slovak to English. It's fun but hard work too, since different languages often use different collocations to express the same idea. It is even more common in songs and poems, where one has to understand the meaning between the lines in order to do a good translation.

It is fascinating and logical at the same time that different languages can describe a thing, a phenomenon or feeling by a word that doesn't exist in any other language at all.

Third book in my October book haul, and second one interconnecting literature and fine arts, and after all the second one which has also something to do with foreign languages, is a French translation of traditional tale about Snow White by the Brothers Grimm, with slightly unconventional, dark but even more fascinating illustrations by French illustrator Benjamin Lacombe. You can find more of his illustrations on his official website: benjaminlacombe.com

As an intermediate French speaker I can still revel in reading of wonderfully illustrated fairytales, which can be easily read by anyone who is starting to learn a foreign language and wishes to make headway.